Southern Wayne edges Cleveland in 10 innings

DUDLEY -- Maybe this can be the spark Southern Wayne has desperately been looking for in recent games.

Cole Barwick scored on an error in the bottom of the 10th inning and the Saints slipped past Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference foe Cleveland 2-1 on Monday evening.

Southern Wayne snapped a three-game losing streak and won its fourth one-run game of the season. The win also helped the Saints improve to 4-4 in ECC play in a week when they play two more pivotal conference games -- today at Eastern Wayne and Thursday against South Johnston at home.

"We've been looking for a bounce to go our way for a while and we finally got one," Southern Wayne head coach Trae McKee said. "I was proud of the guys for battling. We're playing three conference games in four days and it is good to get that first one and we don't turn around (Tuesday) and feel like our backs are up against the wall the rest of the week."

Saints' starting pitcher Cody Wendorf turned in one of his better performances of the season. The senior left-hander consistently located his fastball for strikes, worked ahead in the count and kept the Rams off-balance with his off-speed pitches.

Wendorf surrendered one unearned run on three hits. He struck out nine Cleveland batters and walked two in six innings, but settled for the no-decision.

"I thought Cody was very sharp," McKee said. "Velocity wise, it was one of his better outings. He was tough tonight."

The Rams capitalized on a pair of Southern Wayne' errors in the top of the fourth inning. Kodi Whitley reached on a defensive miscue and later scored on a two-out error to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead.

The Saints (11-7 overall) used a pair of infield singles to tie the game at 1-1 in their half of the sixth inning. Thomas Kelly led off the inning with an infield single and later scored on Taylor Raynor's two-out infield single.

After having a runner thrown out at the plate in the ninth inning, Southern Wayne threatened again in the 10th. Barwick, Kelly and Kevin Williams loaded the bases with three consecutive infield singles.

"That's what we've been doing all year is setting the table," McKee said. "We didn't really get a big hit tonight but maybe that's a sign of good things to come, I don't know. We've struggled hitting with men in scoring position, maybe we can play with a little confidence at the plate."

Jacob Sasser pitched four scoreless innings of relief and earned the mound win.

The Saints and Rams combined for 24 strikeouts and each left nine runners stranded on base.